Cover Story: Paris Versus New York

“I used to have to go to Rue des Rosiers to get a bagel—now you can get one anywhere in Paris,” says Charles Berberian, the Parisian cartoonist who painted this week’s cover, “Out and About.” Berberian’s image shows a couple at a café terrace in Brooklyn—or is it Paris?

“New York has infiltrated Paris, and vice versa,” Berberian says. “The ambience in the street, the way people dress. The stores are the same now in Brooklyn and in my neighborhood, the 10th arrondissement. Ideas, trends are communicated instantly. Remember when you used to send packages by FedEx and had to wait two or three days?”

“There’re lots of creative types, musicians, cartoonists, and others living and working on both continents. And all those French people who had been living in New York are coming back and opening stores in Paris. Now, I can get a good café à l’américaine at the coffee shop around the corner, and the menu is exactly what you’d get in New York.”